Dutra admits error -- Published February 22, 2003

An incoherent and at times hysterical Sarah Dutra admitted she could probably have saved Lawrence McNabney's life had she contacted authorities the night he was poisoned, a videotape shown to a San Joaquin County jury showed Friday.

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel

recordnet.com

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel

Posted May. 19, 2005 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 14, 2007 at 2:50 PM

By Linda Hughes-Kirchubel

Posted May. 19, 2005 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 14, 2007 at 2:50 PM

» Social News

An incoherent and at times hysterical Sarah Dutra admitted she could probably have saved Lawrence McNabney's life had she contacted authorities the night he was poisoned, a videotape shown to a San Joaquin County jury showed Friday.

During an interview that began March 18 and lasted well into the morning of March 19, detectives questioned Dutra about her participation in the death of Sacramento attorney Lawrence McNabney.

Authorities asked Dutra pointedly if she thought McNabney could have survived had she "driven away and contacted the police" some time during the more than 24 hours between the time she learned McNabney was being poisoned and the time of his death in Woodbridge on Sept. 12, 2001.

"I think so," she said, crying. "I didn't think about that, ... but I was scared for my own life."

On March 19, authorities arrested Dutra and charged her with murder and special circumstances in McNabney's death. She faces life in prison if convicted.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas Testa told the jury in opening statements that he believes circumstantial evidence will prove Dutra and McNabney's wife, Laren Sims, poisoned McNabney at a horse show Sept. 10 or 11, 2001, in the Los Angeles County city of Industry, then moved to hide the crime Sept. 11 and throughout the fall.

Sims, Dutra's best friend and boss, fled California in January 2002. After McNabney's body was discovered Feb. 5, 2002, in a shallow grave near Linden, authorities began searching for Sims. The cross-country hunt ended with Sims' arrest March 18 in Florida, where she admitted having killed McNabney, implicated Dutra in her statement and, days later, hanged herself in jail.

While Sims underwent interrogation by the FBI and Florida officials the evening of March 18, San Joaquin County deputies brought Dutra from her Sacramento apartment to Sheriff's Office headquarters in French Camp. Dutra's statements that night were videotaped, and Testa played portions of the videotape Friday for the jury, including sections in which Detective Deborah Scheffel and Sgt. Joe Herrera confront Dutra with Sims' signed confession.

In the video, Dutra denies planning the murder but does admit she and Sims "could have" had a conversations about poisoning McNabney at his Sacramento law office.

Scheffel points out that Sims described McNabney's death using much the same scenario as Dutra. But there were problems with Dutra's statements, Scheffel says. First, getting details was like "pulling teeth," she says. More importantly, Dutra had left herself out of the planning process.

"Of course, because I wouldn't plan to murder somebody," Dutra says. "She had the idea of it, and I could see myself in a conversation saying: 'OK, you want to poison him.' ... That's a little crazy, but if that's what she's going to do, I physically can't stop her."

The first time Dutra knew Sims had poisoned McNabney was Sept. 10, 2001, after Dutra had flown to the Industry horse show at Sims' request. The information came to Dutra as she and Sims sat in the parking lot of McNabney's hotel, an ailing McNabney upstairs in the room.

"She told me that she put it in his mouth," Dutra says in the video. "I was asking her what's going on, and she said, 'I can't handle him anymore,' and I told her, 'What are you doing?' and she said, 'I'm giving him poison.' "

Dutra begins to cry uncontrollably as she relates the conversation to the detectives.

"I said, 'I know you thought about it before, but don't, ... don't do that to him,' " Dutra says. "And she said it was too late."

Throughout the night, the pair checked on McNabney, smoked marijuana and tried to sleep in the red truck that was McNabney's pride and joy, Dutra says in the videotape.